Syria's president agreed to open two new crossing points from Turkiye to the country's rebel-held northwest to deliver desperately needed aid and equipment to help millions of earthquake victims, the United Nations announced Monday.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the agreement by Syrian leader Bashar Assad to open crossing points at Bab Al-Salam and Al Raee for an initial period of three months. Currently, the UN has only been allowed to deliver aid to the northwest Idlib area through a single crossing at Bab Al-Hawa, at Syrian ally Russia's insistence.
Syria's UN ambassador, Bassam Sabbagh, told reporters while the meeting was taking place that Assad held a "positive and constructive meeting" with Griffiths and "confirmed the need for urgent aid to enter all regions in Syria, including those under occupation and under control of the armed terrorist groups."
The United Nations has been under intense pressure to get more aid and heavy equipment into Syria's rebel-held northwest since the earthquake struck a week ago, with survivors lacking the means to dig for survivors and the death toll mounting. Guterres said in a statement that with the rising death toll "delivering food, health, nutrition, protection, shelter, winter supplies and other life-saving supplies to all the millions of people affected is of the utmost urgency."
France's UN ambassador, Nicolas De Riviere, told reporters before Monday's council meeting that the earthquake is "a humanitarian tragedy that should not be politicized." De Riviere told reporters after the meeting that UN humanitarian officials said they were ready to send convoys through the three crossings.
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